


Making It (as a Belcher Kid)

by Javier Belcher (Lycurgus)



Category: Bob's Burgers (Cartoon)
Genre: Adulthood, College, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2016-09-06
Packaged: 2018-08-13 05:30:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7964401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lycurgus/pseuds/Javier%20Belcher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Belcher kids are out and proud and on their own. Needless to say, they run into some challenges</p>
            </blockquote>





	Making It (as a Belcher Kid)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louise thought she was doing well in college, and things had been looking up for her. Then she got an urgent message.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and feedback are highly appreciated! The plot is mostly mapped out, but that does not mean I won't listen to any of your ideas :)

_Chapter comes with and optional soundtrack ;)_

Louise would be late for hockey practice.

She rushed down a hallway in the old building which housed the student center. Earlier that week, she had received an e-mail from her academic adviser, requesting that she come see her in her office. Right after _Social Psychology_ class, Louise had to grab her bag and run across campus to make it to the appointment in time. Her leather boots with the steel caps were her favorite, but they were not made for running. It had been necessary to squeeze the appointment between class and the beginning of hockey practice, and she knew the team would be mad at her if she wouldn’t show up in time. They had an important match on the following day, and especially Jessica would feel let down if Louise looked like she wasn’t throwing her everything into practice. But she absolutely had to go see her academic adviser, Ms Cramer. Her message said it was urgent.

Academic advisers. Somehow they were the bane of Louise’s existence. This went all the way back to her first guidance counselor, Mr. Frond, who would not stop messing with her business, way back when she was still going to Wagstaff. Ho boy, had she been glad to get rid of him when she went to High School—only to have him be replaced by Ms Leef.

Ms Leef had encompassed all the finickiness of Mr Frond, only she was even more inquisitive and had a mean dash of hard-ass mixed in. She basically had left Louise no other choice but to leverage operation _Brown Under_ against her. It had involved flooding the restroom toilets across the hall from Ms Leef’s office, and using the water to create a tsunami wave in her office while she was inside. Her furniture and possessions had been dyed in 50 shades of brown that day, and school counseling has never smelled the same ever since.

Louise had to get real lucky not to get caught in the aftermath. False witnesses, a forged alibi, blackmail, corruption and bribery—including helping Peter Pescadero to his first kiss—had all been necessary to avoid being expelled from High School. That same year, Gene had put together a wild stage performance full of innuendos about the mischief Louise had spread. Gene performed it for the annual school band contest, and had called it the _Brown Tsunami_. He took part every year with a new and different band line-up, and this year he could have won easily, had it not been for vice principal Jacobson, who stormed the stage and pulled the cord from Gene’s mike. Gene didn’t win, again, but the kids would be making jokes based on Gene’s performance for weeks, almost sending Ms Leef over the edge.

But things were much different with Louise’s academic adviser in college. Bob and Linda could only support her so much with cash. Louise needed all that juicy scholarship money. As a consequence, the talks she had with Ms Cramer felt a lot more like the talks you would hear during a tax audit. Or the uneasy conversations Louise had with sargeant Bosco during her senior year. Those had typically revolved around toilet paper, underage drinking, bloody noses and public indecency down at the beach. Oh that sweet, sweet, late summer public indecency. Good times.

Taking no time to catch her breath, she knocked on the office door. The raspy voice of Ms Cramer called her in. Louise found her sitting at her desk, along with her colleague at the only other desk in the shared office. It was as messy as ever, with paperwork and notes piling up everywhere, on every surface, and spilling out from drawers and cabinets. The only empty surfaces were the two visitor chairs, and the windowsill, were a shooting squad of eager, spiky, bright green cacti was lined up. Ms Cramer and her colleague, they were like that.

Ms Cramer with the ridiculous, high rising hairstyle had to ask Louise’s name. She gave it, and only now seemed the woman to really focus on the visitor. Her face seemed to get somewhat more tense. It weirdly seemed like her colleague at the other desk twitched a little when he heard Louise introduce herself. Then the guy got out of his chair and announced that he would leave to get more coffee.

Louise wanted to sit down, but was stopped and Ms Cramer handed her some old copies to put down in the chair before she sat.

“Sorry Ms Belcher, I don’t want butt on my chair.”, she said in her slightly sarcastic tone.

Naturally, she referred to Louise’s awesome pair of black pants, which were much more than a little torn in front and on the backside.

Louise gave her a friendly and confident smile: “Oh Ms Cramer, it gets funnier every time you say that.”

“And yet, every time you come to my office, the holes in your pants have become a little larger, right Louise?”

“Each year, right around midsummer, Ms Cramer, miraculously.”, Louise nodded.

“You know, when I went to this school, I did not feel any need to let my buttocks flap in the wind. I can’t imagine it could advance you very much as a young lady, Louise.”, she insisted, looking over the frame of her glasses.

Louise had a good one to follow that up, and gave her a big smile. But she was an adult now. Legally speaking. So she thought of her hockey team, which was probably getting mad at her right then and just said: “I appreciate the little talks we have in your office, Ms Cramer, but unfortunately I am somewhat pressed for time today. What is it that you wanted to see me about?”

Ms Cramer sighed, and her face looked more serious again. There was something sad in her expression, too. There was no easy way to scare Louise, but this got her a little weirded out.

Ms Cramer raised her eyebrows and said: “You better drop the attitude, Ms Belcher. You’re in quite the pickle. It’s serious, I’m afraid.”

Louise felt increasingly uneasy. She thought for a second, and then it dawned on her. The midterms had been two weeks ago, and this week the last grades were supposed to come in. But Louise tried to keep her cool. She remembered that she had not done too bad. That was unlikely, right? She had studied hard.

“Oh, crap. The midterms?”, she asked. Ms Cramer did obviously not appreciate her choice of words.

“Yes, the midterms, Ms Belcher. But I’m afraid this goes even further. I keep tabs on the students who qualify for the better scholarship grants, like the _Ripley Educational Fund_. Remember that one, Louise?”

Did she? Of course. The _Ripley Fund_ was her best one. Louise had managed to qualify for some scholarships before she enrolled in university. But she would have never left home before she was sure she had gotten the _Ripley Fund_. They were talking serious money now.

However, it took much more to have Louise admit she was fazed, so she said in her half-joking voice: “Now, don’t you even joke about that, Ms Cramer. What’s wrong? Do I have to improve my grades or I’ll loose it?”

“No. The way your grades look, you no longer qualify, Louise.”, Ms Cramer said seriously.

That got her. Louise perked up, leaning forward: “What do you mean? It’s only mid term. How can I already have lost it?”

“You didn’t _loose_ it yet, but with your current grade point average, you no longer _qualify_. You might loose it next term.”

“Phew.”, Louise breathed, “You had me worried there for a second.”

“You should worry, Louise, listen to me! It’s quite a stretch.”

“Hang on, my mid terms weren’t that bad!”, she protested.

“No, they weren’t. But you barely passed the exam in _Marketing Theory_. What were you thinking, taking that class? You mostly took Psychology classes so far, apart from general topics. _Marketing Theory_ , Louise?”

Louise looked somewhat detached. She sat back and bit her lip, breathed deeply, looked at her black nails. In her mind, a face began to appear, a gruff face, dark hair, light skin, a perfect amount of facial hair. Darn it. And that guy had turned out to be kind of an asshole, after all, not even worth it. Crap on a stick, she thought.

“Oh, I see.”, Ms Cramer said sarcastically, “Was it that serious? Butt business, huh, Louise?”

“Boy business. Stupid, stupid, slap-worthy boy business.”

“Butt business.”, Ms Cramer insisted.

“Whatever.”

Ms Cramer exhaled, obviously tired of Louise. She turned her flat screen around so the girl could see it.

“Look.”, she said, “That’s your GPA. It’s gotta go up by five points by the end of the term, or you’ll loose the _Ripley Fund_ —”

“Five points!”, Louise exclaimed.

“Hang on—that one, and you won’t be able to reapply for this, and this grant.”, she pointed on her screen, “That’s right, five points. You’ll make it if you finish _Marketing Theory_ with a B or better.”

“B or better? I barely passed the midterm! And I’ve been cramming like crazy!”

“Good!”, Ms Cramer smiled and sat back in her squeaky chair, “That’s exactly what you’ll need more of, Ms Belcher. Tons of, to be exact.”

“Oh, great, that’s just great! I’ll just wall myself into the library until the end of term!”, Louise was real upset now.

Ms Cramer saw she had done her job: “I’ve told you all you need to know, Louise. Buckle down. Hard.”, she nodded definitively, “That’s all.”

Louise pouted, aggravated, and got out of the precious visitor chair, went to the door, but Ms Cramer stopped her.

“Listen.”, she said, “Your other grades look pretty good. It doesn’t look like you’re bungling. Work hard and you’ll get this. It’s worth it.”

“Thanks, but that doesn’t help me.”, Louise said, still really upset. She left, closing the door much too loudly.

“ _Cover your ass Louise! Literally and figuratively!”_ her adviser yelled behind her as she rushed down the hallway again.

She was fuming. She was mad.

 

 


End file.
